6 Nov 2016

eKhaliyan

Diwali, An Asthmatic's Night Of Terror

Diwali and asthma

The Picture!
       Firecrackers! As a kid they sure did excite me. Watching every sparkle blow up in the sky with those blasting sounds, there always was a different feel looking at a sparkle of orange and gold spectrum trying to engulf the sky of the night . 

                           

      Talking about it, I find myself walking down a lane of utter nostalgia today. Of course adulthood taught me a billion reasons why these supremely satisfying artifacts need to be stopped from being used and banned too. From raising the air pollution  to a whole different level to cause accidental injuries, Diwali and Firecrackers can majorly hamper one's quality of life, may also paralyze one of his normal daily life activities. One of such examples is the exacerbated form on a patient suffering 
from asthma. 

                               Image result for asthma
                         
Here’s how it works out:
           Asthma is basically a condition of hyper responsiveness to any foreign body in the respiratory tract. Normally, foreign bodies introduced in the respiratory tract are expelled right away. At times they settle deep in the passage and in some hyper responsive patients, may evoke some symptoms of asthma. They include breathlessness, increase in heart rate, fatigue and even loss of consciousness at times.

 It won't be a surprise to see an asthmatic keep something called an inhaler with him, all the time. This inhaler when used releases certain substances which basically decrease the hyper responsiveness of the patient. This is essentially the restricted study of an asthmatic.


                              Image result for asthma

         Diwali, the festival of light is been celebrated with great excitement in the nation. However, the calender doesn't bring the good news to some of us, when this festival is due. There's a reported high incidence of new diagnosis as well as hampered prognosis of already established asthmatics, in this -season of light. A survey conducted mentioned that the physician at a clinic encounters a rise in about 9% asthma patients during this festival than what he normally does. Only one reason explains this :

    The Pollution! 
      The smoke caused by the firecrackers, on inhalation tend to deposit in the lungs. For an asthmatic, that comes as bad news given the fact that he/ she has more irritating agents in her lungs now which can prompt a stronger immune response. The hyper responsiveness is even prolonged and the patient now ends up having increased episodes of asthmatic attacks and has his quality of life even more worsened.


 


      It is for this reason that it is more than advisable for an asthmatic to take a break off life and stay at home, not do much work including dust around, to protect oneself from exposure to more irritants.





     Having said that, the patient cannot stop breathing the normal Air  which too is a bit more polluted than normal now and hence, is always at a bigger risk to develop frequent asthma attacks. It is therefore advisable that he keeps his loaded inhaler with him at all times.